Inverness was where we were to collect our seventh and final star. The Highland capital is surrounded by water – the Beauly Firth and Moray Firth wash across its north side and to the south, the River Ness and Caledonian Canal link it to Loch Ness, cutting through Scotland to the west coast at Loch Linnhe. Less poetically, as one of the fastest growing cities in Western Europe, it is sometimes said to be surrounded by Tesco’s stores. We were working with six primary schools in the west of the city – Muirtown, Kirkhill, Beauly, Dochgarroch, Teannassie, and Kinmylies.
The seventh star chosen was Gamma Cassiopeia, an erratic, variable star, given to occasional outbursts of brightness in the constellation of the eponymous Queen.
Cassiopeia has a story that we all enjoyed. As punishment for her vain boasting, she was condemned to swing forever around the Pole Star, clutching at her throne as she nearly topples from it each night. She helped bring alive an important feature of our night sky – how the circumpolar stars rotate around Polaris.
Queen Cassiopeia took her boasting too far when she claimed to be more beautiful than the sea nymphs. They got Poseidon to set Cetus, a sea monster, against her kingdom. When her husband Cepheus consulted the oracle, he found that the land could only be saved if they sacrificed their daughter Andromeda to the sea monster. Once she was chained to a rock, and wailing in terror, who should show up but Perseus? Luckily, he was flying about on Pegasus with Medusa’s head still in a bag. He rescued Andromeda by showing Cetus the gorgon’s head, thus turning the monster to stone. In exchange for his heroism, he married Andromeda. In one version of the story Cassiopeia, still not content, plotted the murder of Perseus. When discovered, she was turned to stone herself, and presumably at that time was exiled to the night sky.
Most of the children concluded that she got her come-uppance. Beauly and Teannassie pupils helped me write this ditty about her, and they made cartoons of her angry protests as she reeled in the sky.
The rise and fall of Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia
she didn’t shed a tear
when she tied her daughter to a rock
and the sea-monster swam near
Cassiopeia
her beauty was clear
but she’s chained up there for bragging
and no-one’s gone to free her
Cassiopeia
we can always see her
dangling round the Pole Star
at night when it’s clear
Cassiopeia
her throne always near
she goes round on automatic
no need for her to steer
Cassiopeia
oh dear oh dear
still peering down at life on Earth
all bright and superior
Cassiopeia
uncomfortable, and jeered at
she’ll be talked about and pointed at
across the light years
Kirkhill and Beauly children wrote contemporary updates of her story, making sure readers don’t miss the moral. With ‘Rock Ness’ just down the road the week before, they had no problem in conceiving of her as a celebrity rock chick, and so she was also invited in for a ‘star interview’.
Upside Down and Round and Round
‘Upside down and round and round, turning and spinning as I go,’ sang Cassie. ‘Thank you, thank you!’ she shouted.
Cassie had brown hair with pink highlights and she wore bright purple trousers and an orange belly top. What was special about her? She was beautiful even though she was 40!
‘Of course me and my daughter Andie are the most beautiful in the band!’ she said to OK magazine.
The band was getting fed up of Cassie boasting. They cut off some of Andie’s hair so it was like a big spiky cactus. Andie thought her new hairstyle made her look cooler. She liked her hair so the band was pretty annoyed. Andie got on her motorbike and rode around with her boyfriend Percy. On the motorbike Percy acted cooler and stronger than he really was. Andie didn’t know but Percy had a special power!
Cassie didn’t like Percy because he was an ugly old scruff bag with warts on his face and hands. He had huge zits on his nose and verucas as big as golf balls.
Cassie cut the brakes of the bike and it went whizzing into a tree.
You could hear a splat. Andie broke her nose so she wasn’t that beautiful any more. You could smell the gas from the motorbike.
Percy was annoyed because Cassie made his motorbike crash. He used his special power, which was sending people up into the sky. He beamed Cassie into space. You could see stars everywhere, you could hear her screaming, ‘Let me down, I won’t boast ever again, please let me down!’ You could smell sugary perfume as she went very fast round and round.
Today we hear Cassie shouting ‘Let me down, let me down!’ We see stars that look like her at night time. When we see her in the sky we think to ourselves – We will never boast again!
P5 Kirkhill Primary School
Constellation Cassie
Cassie has curly blonde hair, a fake tan and blue eyes. She was wearing jeans and a little blue top and carried a pink handbag and sunglasses when she was live on MTV, sitting on a really comfy sofa talking about her catchy new song, Upside Down and Round and Round.
During the interview Cassie was boasting about her daughter and herself. She kept saying how beautiful they were. The band was angry because Cassie was so boastful. The band decided to cut off Cassie’s daughter’s hair so she would look ugly.
The band’s plan did not work. Andie was pleased with her new hairstyle, as it was spiky, short and cool. She still thought she was beautiful and in the trend. Later, she met her boyfriend, Percy. He has brunette hair, sea blue eyes that sparkle in the daylight. He is deeply in love with Andie.
Cassie was furious about Andie having a boyfriend called Percy, because he is not famous. She thought he was strange as he acted differently from everyone else. So one day Andie and Percy were going out to the countryside on the motorbike, when suddenly Cassie jumped right in front of the bike and the bike skidded along the road and crashed into a tree. Percy fell off and broke his arm.
Percy was very angry about Cassie’s actions. As revenge he threw her up to the sky with his power of strength. He hurled four groups of stars up after her and they stuck to her dress. She turned misty and the stars got brighter. Her body faded until she was only an outline. There was a large bang and she turned into a constellation of Queen Cassie.
Now she is a constellation in the sky going round the North Star. She reminds us not to brag or boast because nothing good comes of it, and when it is a quiet night you can hear her saying, ‘I’m still the prettiest even though I’m a constellation!’ Cassie’s constellation consists of four groups of stars in the shape of a W.
P5 Beauly Primary school
Star Interview with Cassiopeia
How do you feel about being upside down?
Really scared about falling off and my hair getting wrecked!
How do you think you feel circling around a star?
I feel dizzy, dizzy because I am going around and around and I also feel sick!
What do you like about being a star?
Well I don’t really like it much but its cool seeing everything in space and down on earth.
What was it like being sent up into space?
It was quite scary and dark, I was frightened but now I can be seen more which means I can boast more.
What do you eat?
I eat quiche with Martian moss and it is scrummy!
Why were you so boastful?
Because I knew I was beautiful and I wanted to show the world that I knew!
Interview by P5, Kirkhill Primary School
Many pupils imagined and then wrote their own constellation stories that week. Cassiopeia’s repeated inversion seemed to have crystallised in imaginations and the idea cropped up in their stories as images of things rising that normally fall. The tears of a disappointed bride rise to heaven where they fix as stars in the outline of her unworn wedding dress. A seal that is unnecessarily killed is reincarnated as snowflakes which rise to make its shape in the sky as stars.
Here are a few of the stories.
Hearteo
Long, long ago in Inverness town there was a retired hunter called Orion. He lived in a black house with only one room. It was very dark and smoky in the house.
One day in the market place he bumped into a nice girl called Virgo. Orion suddenly fell in love with her and asked if she would go on a date. She said, ‘Yes!’
He invited her home for tea. They had lots of haggis. He asked her to marry him but he was not lucky this time. She said, ‘No!’ It broke his heart in two. That night he could not sleep. He went and looked at himself in a cracked mirror. A depressed version of him looked back.
After he had looked at himself he started running faster and faster towards Loch Ness. He had decided that he would go to rip his heart out because he could not take the pain. He ripped out his heart and threw into the sky as his body fell into the deep, deep water of Loch Ness.
That night Virgo came running when she realised he wasn’t at home. When she got to Loch Ness she saw his body floating in the water. She looked up and saw a heart shaped constellation in the sky.
Bethannie Clark P5, Dochgarroch Primary
A Star Is Born
There was a girl who was the King and Queen’s daughter. She was a bad singer. Everyone thought so and when she had a concert everyone booed her so she ran off the stage.
She ran outside crying because she was so upset. She ran so far that she ran somewhere she didn’t know existed so when it got dark she didn’t know how to get back.
She saw a man and she tried to hide but he saw her and said, ‘Why are you crying?’
‘Because everyone thinks I’m a bad singer,’ she replied.
‘I can make you a great singer.’
‘Promise?’ she asked.
‘Yes but only if you go up to the sky singing for ever as a constellation.’
She asked how long it would be until she went up and the man replied she would go up once she’d been taught to sing wonderfully. It took one month to train her to sing the best she could and then she soared up into the sky to be a constellation for ever.
Today we can still see her with the musical notes singing wonderfully the best she can. Even the King and Queen like to see her and the people who booed her off the stage miss her but everyone thinks she is better off where she is, including herself.
Caitlin MacLeod (9) Muirtown Primary School
Touching the Sky
The day of the big trial motorbike race arrived. John and Ryan were entering the race, all it needed was their names and they were in. First John’s name and then Ryan’s.
‘I am so excited!’ said John.
‘Me too,’ said Ryan.
And with that they went to get ready.
When they were ready they both looked smart.
‘Quick, quick! We want to be there on time,’ yelled John.
They made it to the starting point with seconds to spare.
Three, two, one, zero and they were off.
‘Where do we go?’ asked Ryan.
‘Follow the red arrows,’ replied John.
They burned off over the mud hill and under the tunnel and out of sight for a mile or two. There was a mighty roar of engines.
One of the first people to come out of the tunnel was John. There was just one rider in front of him but he overtook him on the next bend.
‘Yes!’
John felt as cool as a cucumber as he crossed the finish line. Ryan came in third place. John was over-excited and started to show off to the crowd and to Ryan.
He revved up his bike to do a big jump but he jumped so high that he got stuck in the sky for ever. His motorbike light shines there today.
Fergus MacDougall (10), Muirtown Primary School
The Serpent
One day a young boy was fishing in the Moray Firth off the coast near Nairn. The boat was quite narrow, made of wood and the tall strong boy rowed out to sea. He was trailing a line with baited hooks behind the boat when suddenly an enormous monster burst out of the water.
It surfaced under the boat and carried it on its greenish, black back to the mouth of the River Ness. It was a tight squeeze for the monster but he was able to fit into the mouth of the Ness and swim up river.
The boy sat quite relaxed in his boat on the monster’s back and enjoyed the incredible views as they swam into Loch Ness.
The monster suddenly dived into the water and the boy’s boat floated on the surface of the loch. The boy rowed to the beach at Lochend and ran to tell a local that there was a monster in Loch Ness. So the local man gathered a monster killing party on the beach. They built a gigantic boat for them all to travel on the loch. The hunters rowed their boat and searched for the monster.
Finding the monster feeding on a sheep at Urquhart Castle the hunters silently rowed to shore and killed him with arrows.
The monster’s spirit flew into the air and turned into a constellation shaped like a serpent.
Jack Forbes P5, Dochgarroch Primary
The Stag
Once, in a Highland forest, a herd of deer, which had been peacefully grazing, were being chased by a group of hunters from a nearby village.
The deer travelled many miles into the deepest part of the forest. However, soon they were lost and making many attempts to get back to their home.
The chief hunter was disappointed that he had not caught anything, so the next day he sent out five more hunters to catch the deer. The deer tried hiding in caves up the side of a mountain, but it was so dark inside the caves, they could not see their way. They decided to find the darkest corner to hide in and huddled together.
The hunters had searched everywhere and followed the deer hoof prints to the caves. They decided to search all the caves to try and find the deer. They lit flame torches to help them to see.
From one of the darkest corners a hunter yelled that he had found the deer. There was a fight and some of the deer were killed. The stag managed to escape with the rest of the deer. They ran for three days to a thicker part of the forest.
The stag decided he must be thrown into the stars, where he could watch over the deer and warn them when the hunters were coming.
So that is how the stag constellation came to be in the sky, watching over all the deer.
Milo Farragher-Hanks P5, Dochgarroch Primary
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